


Where the Heart Is

by badgirlcarly



Category: Thunderheart (1992)
Genre: Drinking & Talking, Jealousy, Love Confessions, M/M, Spanking, friends from college
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-03
Updated: 2016-12-03
Packaged: 2020-12-31 02:34:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21051323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badgirlcarly/pseuds/badgirlcarly
Summary: Ray goes out with an old friend from out east and ends up earning a spanking from Walter.





	Where the Heart Is

  
Crow Horse stood propped up against the bedroom door frame, watching Ray get ready. 

“So, how do you know this guy?” Crow Horse asked. 

Ray did up his trousers. “We played baseball together in college.”

Crow Horse's mouth twisted. “And he just _happens_ to be in Keystone, half an hour away?”

Ray quit selecting one of his exquisitely ironed shirts from his side of the closet, and gave Crow Horse a look. 

“He's there on purpose,” Ray said. “Taking his family to see Mount Rushmore.” He frowned. “Do you not want me to go?”

Crow Horse looked away. “Ain't none of my business where you go.”

Ray sighed. He walked over to Crow Horse in the doorway, circling his hands around Crow Horse's hips. 

“It's just dinner,” he said. “One night with an old friend from college. I'm not going to run away with him back east. You have nothing to worry about.”

Crow Horse looked at him. “Alright, _kola_, alright.” He kissed him. “Be good, okay?”

***

“This bar is terrible,” John said, cracking open a peanut and sucking on the fruit. 

Ray grinned. “The food is worse, I'm sure.”

“I don't know how you live without a decent Chinese takeout place,” John said, and Ray shook his head. 

“It's been hard,” Ray said. “For a while, I felt like I was going through detox.”

John laughed. “Yeah, I'm sure you know a lot about what's that like, Mr. Straight Edge.”

Ray smiled as their waitress set their drinks down. Ray submerged the ice cubes in his Coke, pushing them down with his straw, while John took a sip of his beer. 

“So,” John said, “your boyfriend didn't want to come?”

“He thought it would be good for me to get out with a friend. Everyone on the rez I know through him, so...”

John nodded. “I get it. You two--you're doing okay?”

“Yeah,” Ray said, and he meant it. “We're really good.” John didn't say anything for a minute, so Ray said, “Just ask.”

John set his beer down, really looked at Ray. “So, I mean… have you always been gay, or... Because it came as kind of a shock when I heard you were shacking up with some guy.”

“Yeah, it was pretty much a shock to me, too. I had never thought about men like that ever, and then I met Walter, and…”

He shrugged. 

John nodded. “But you're good.”

“Yeah,” Ray said. “I mean… we complement each other.”

“How's the sex?”

Ray grinned. “It's incredible.”

John's brows rose. “Like Shelly Michaels in the backseat of your GTO incredible, or--”

“That was you!” Ray laughed. “I never did anything with Shelly Michaels!”

“That's too bad; I'm pretty sure she wanted to do something with you.”

“I was with Cindy the whole time, and I'm not a cheat, and--” Ray paused. “Really? Shelly had a thing for me?”

John grinned. “Just something I heard.”

“From who?”

John waved away the question. “You never answered my question. What kind of incredible are we talking about here?”

Ray bit his lip. “Best sex of my life incredible.”

John's brows rose again. “Really? Is it because--you know, it's with a guy, or--?”

“I don't think so,” Ray said. “It's just… we really connect.”

John nodded. He raised his beer for a toast. “To Walter Crow Horse,” he said, “and the best sex of your life.”

***

They closed the bar. It was past two a.m. when the doors shut behind them and they walked through the poorly lit parking lot, empty except for Ray’s truck and John's rental. John searched his pockets for his keys, and Ray shook his head. 

“No,” he said. “No way am I letting you drive.”

“Lighten up, Levoi. It's half a mile.”

“No way,” Ray said. He opened the passenger's side door, motioned inside. “Come on. I'll take you back to the hotel.”

“How am I supposed to get my car back in the morning?”

“Like you said, it's half a mile. You can walk.”

John sighed, but he knew Ray well enough to know he wouldn't budge on this. He pulled himself up into Ray’s truck. 

Ray helped John down from the cab, helped him to his unsteady feet. 

“I'm getting old,” John said. “Losing my tolerance.”

“Not a bad thing,” Ray said. “Eight beers are cheaper than twenty.”

John frowned. “Did I really drink eight beers tonight?”

“And a half,” Ray said. They paused in front of the room where John's wife and son were sleeping. 

“It was really good to see you,” Ray said. 

John clapped his hand on Ray’s shoulder. 

“You too. Take care of yourself,” he said, unlocking the door to his room as quietly as he could. Then: “It's good to see you so happy, Ray.”

Ray smiled. John slipped into the room and closed the door behind him. Ray listened to the locks fall into place, and then he walked back to the truck. 

***

Ray tried to sneak into his own house as inconspicuously as John had, but when he opened the door he found the lights on. Crow Horse was sitting with a beer at the kitchen table, not looking happy at all. 

Ray closed the door behind himself. He hung up his keys, gave Jimmy a scratch, and then went to see Crow Horse in the kitchen. 

“Hey,” he said. “You didn't have to wait up for me.”

“You got any idea what time it is?”

Ray checked his watch. “Three fifteen,” he said, and then flinched. Walter had probably been worried, and Ray hadn't even thought of calling home. 

“Sorry,” he said. “I should have called.”

Crow Horse shrugged. He got up from the table, set his empty beer bottle in the sink. “Imagine it was hard for you to find the time, all wound up in your college buddy's exploits.”

“That's not--” Something struck him. “Are you jealous?”

Crow Horse turned his face away, spoke sharply. “Course not.”

Crow Horse pushed past Ray, stormed to the bedroom. Ray followed. 

“Walter, he's just a friend! I never--I'm with _you_, I want to be with you, I don't--I don't want anything else. I don't want any_one_ else.”

Crow Horse stopped, turned to regard him, his mouth drawn tight. 

“You been out til all hours of the night,” he said, but without fire or conviction. “You had me worried sick. I didn't know where you were or what had happened to you.”

“I'm sorry,” Ray said. “I was inconsiderate. I'll do better.”

Crow Horse's mouth twisted. His eyes looked at Ray without really seeing him. “I think you could do with a whipping, teach you not to worry me.”

Ray would have done anything to erase the strained tone of Crow Horse's voice, to get rid of the unfocused glaze in his eyes. 

“Yes, sir,” he said, sounding almost eager. 

Crow Horse advanced on him. He took Ray by the wrist a moment, Crow Horse's thumb pressing into Ray’s pulse point. They looked at each other. Then Crow Horse used his hold on Ray's arm and a hand on Ray's shoulder to position him bent over, Ray's hands on the mattress and his butt sticking up. 

Ray spread his legs. Crow Horse came from behind him, his hand squeezing Ray's buttocks, still covered by the denim of Ray's jeans. He was still for a long time; Ray looked over his shoulder. 

“Walter?” 

“Face front,” Crow Horse said, and Ray obeyed. 

He waited. Crow Horse rapped his fingers against Ray's ass, but that was all. 

Finally, Crow Horse pulled his arm back. He slapped his flat palm down on Ray's upturned backside. Ray exhaled slowly; the hit was muted by the denim, but it still hurt. Crow Horse smacked him again, again, long pauses between them. 

Ray's butt was beginning to heat, and his pants were mattering less and less as his bottom started to burn; once the pain sank into the muscle, the extra layer of protection didn't help anymore. Crow Horse was starting to wallop him good; he got in a particularly brutal smack right where Ray balanced his weight as he sat, and Ray couldn't help himself: he let out a little yelp. 

Crow Horse stopped. Ray heard him sigh. 

“Shit, Ray,” he said. He sat beside Ray on the bed, and Ray studied his face. He looked tired. “My heart ain't really in this.”

Ray’s face dropped he abandoned his position bent over the bed, sank to his knees in front of Crow Horse, Ray's hands on Crow Horse's thighs. 

“I'm sorry,” Ray said. “Please, if you're mad at me, punish me, I'll take it--”

Crow Horse shook his head. “It ain't you I'm mad at,” he said. Ray's brow pinched, not comprehending, and Crow Horse elaborated. “I'm mad at myself.”

Crow Horse threaded his fingers through Ray's hair. “I trust you,” he said. “I ain't even jealous, it's just--it's just I'm afraid. I got you here, but you left an awful lot behind, and it'd be so easy to lose you back to all that, your old life--”

Ray took Crow Horse's hands in his, met his eyes. 

“I'm not going anywhere,” he said. “Not for anything. There is nothing out there that I want more than I want you.”

Ray stretched up until he could kiss Crow Horse's lips, and then he did. Crow Horse put his hands on Ray's body and lifted him up, lifted Ray against him. 

“You're something else,” Crow Horse said softly, his gaze pure fondness. 

Ray smiled. He kissed him again. 

“Yeah,” he said. “I'm all yours.”  



End file.
